Michelle Chapman
NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights across the United States after thousands of delays and hundreds of cancellations at airports across the country rapidly cascaded through the system as computers went down early Wednesday. is unlocking.
The FAA ordered the grounding of all outbound flights early Wednesday morning, but lifted the order hours later just before 9am.
However, delays and cancellations continue to snowball.
Over 3,700 flights have been delayed and over 640 flights have been cancelled.
The FAA suspension order affects nearly all flights for shippers and commercial airlines.
According to aviation data company Cirium, there are more than 21,000 flights scheduled today in the United States, mostly domestic travel, and about 1,840 international flights were scheduled to fly to the United States.
Some medical flights were permitted, and the suspension did not affect military operations or maneuverability.
U.S. Air Mobile Command flights were unaffected, Air Mobile Command spokesman Damien Pickert said, not only when he moved troops from one base to another. Also all flights that transport to Air Mobility Command has been working with the FAA on this issue.
The White House initially said there was no evidence of a cyberattack, but President Joe Biden told reporters he had “no idea” and had directed the Department of Transportation to investigate the cause of the disruption.
Biden addressed the FAA matter on Wednesday before leaving the White House to accompany his wife to a medical procedure at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington. He was briefed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Buttigieg said he had not yet determined what went wrong.
“I just spoke to Buttigieg. They don’t know what’s going on. But I was on the phone with him for like 10 minutes,” Biden said. Air traffic can land safely, but it cannot take off right now. I don’t know what the cause is. ”
Buttigieg said in a tweet that he is in contact with the FAA and is monitoring the situation.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Delays were concentrated on the East Coast, but are spreading rapidly to the West Coast.
The FAA said it was working to restore the notification system.
“We are currently performing final validation checks and reloading the system,” the FAA said. “The operations of the entire national airspace system will be affected.”
The agency said some functions were beginning to come back online, but that “operations of the national airspace system continue to be restricted.”
Julia McPherson learned of the potential delay while she was on a United Airlines flight from Sydney to Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“I was in the air when a friend, who was also traveling abroad, told me there was a power outage,” said McPherson, who returned to Florida from Hobart, Tasmania. After landing in Los Angeles, it still connects to a flight from Denver to Jacksonville, Florida.
She said there were no in-flight announcements about the FAA issue.
McPherson said he has already experienced travel delays as his original flight from Melbourne to San Francisco was canceled and he rebooked a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.
The FAA is working to restore what is known as notification to air mission systems.
Before commencing a flight, pilots should refer to a NOTAM or air mission notice listing potential adverse effects to flight, from runway construction to potential icing. The system used to be telephone-based, with pilots seeking information from a dedicated flight service station, but has now moved online.
NOTAM system failures seem to be rare.
“I don’t remember a NOTAM system going down like this,” said John Cox, former airline pilot and now aviation safety consultant.
According to the FAA’s advisory, the NOTAM system failed at 8:28 pm ET on Tuesday, preventing new or corrected notices from being distributed to pilots. The FAA relied on a telephone hotline to maintain overnight departures, but increased daytime traffic overwhelmed the telephone backup system.
Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stephanek said no US military flights were affected.
European flights to the US appeared to be largely unaffected.
Irish airline Aer Lingus said service to the United States continues, and the Dublin Airport website showed flights to Newark, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles operating as scheduled. rice field.
“Aer Lingus plans to operate all transatlantic flights as scheduled today,” the airline said in a prepared statement. “While we will continue to monitor, we do not anticipate any service interruptions due to technical issues in the United States.”
It’s the latest headache for U.S. travelers facing flight cancellations while on vacation amid winter storms and a breakdown of Southwest Airlines’ staffing techniques.Also, the COVID-19 pandemic Long lines, lost luggage, cancellations and delays were encountered over the summer as travel demand surged from 2019 and faced staff cutbacks at US and European airports and airlines.
The FAA says it will provide frequent updates as it progresses.
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AP’s White House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report from Washington, DC AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed from London. AP reporter Freida Frisaro contributed from Miami. AP Airlines Writer David Koenig contributed from Dallas.
